"Mom, do you have any idea how I turn this into a hat? I followed the directions, and what I've got is like a knitted tube. Do I sew it together at the top?"
Quinn should have known better than to ask her mother any knitting-related questions, but she really wasn't sure what to do. She had watched a video on YouTube, which showed that she needed to sew something together, but she couldn't really see how that was supposed to work.
"Sweetie, I really don't know. Did you check on the computer?" Judy looked up from the magazine she was reading only long enough to answer her daughter.
"Yes, and it makes no sense! I think I'm going to phone grandma and ask her."
After trying to reach her grandmother without having any luck, Quinn sat back at her computer. She thought about posting her dilemma on Facebook and seeing if anyone could help, but quickly remembered that she was friends with Artie, and he would most certainly see it.
Sighing, she looked through her list of contacts, hoping that something would jump out at her.
It didn't. So, she went back to YouTube.
Meanwhile, at Artie's house...
"Um...Mom...do you know anything about knitting?" Artie asked, approaching his mother as she cooked dinner.
She turned to face him. "Not really, why?"
"Well, I have a bit of a problem. When Auntie M was here she showed me how to start knitting a scarf, because I said I wanted to make something for Quinn for Christmas, but I think I screwed it up. It looks like a dish rag."
Beth smiled, putting down the bowl of vegetables she was getting ready to serve.
"Can I see?"
He cringed slightly, holding up something that resembled about a third of a thick purple scarf, complete with crooked edges and something she suspected was a large bundle of wool that he had tied to it.
"Linds decorated my room with the wool, and I had to roll it back up somehow...I didn't really know what to do with that, so I kind of just tied it together around a DVD case. I think it somehow got woven into the scarf. Help me, Mom, you're my only hope."
Beth laughed. Leave it to her son to announce that he had taken up knitting, and then follow it up with a quote from Star Wars.
"Well, I don't really know how to knit very well, but I think I see the problem here. We need to take it apart until about half way through, so we can untangle that."
Artie was not amused. "I've been working on this forever, and now we have to take it apart? Can't we fix it somehow? I'll never be finished in time."
As mother and son sat staring at the mess of purple yarn in Artie's lap, Michael walked in.
"Martin and that weird kid are here," he said, walking over to the fridge. "I told them you're in here...they're just taking their shoes off."
Artie's eyes widened. "Mom, take this. My manhood will be totally squashed if they find out I've been knitting."
Michael looked like he was about to say something, but a sharp glare from his mother cut him off.
"Sorry for showing up unannounced, Mrs. Abrams, but we need to talk to Artie for a second. It won't take long...AV Club stuff."
Beth smiled. "No problem, boys, you know you're always welcome. I'm just getting dinner ready, would you like to stay?"
The two deliberated for a moment, before deciding that yes, that would work. They quickly called their respective mothers to make sure that it was alright with them, and were pleased when neither of them met any resistance.
After a couple of minutes, AJ spied the purple jumble of knitting. "Having some knitting problems, Mrs. Abrams? Want me to see if I can fix it?"
Artie stared at his friend. "You can knit?"
AJ shrugged. "Yeah, my grandma taught me. She said that I would never truly be a man until could knit or sew or something. I tried sewing, because I thought stabbing something sharp through cloth was definitely more manly than knitting, but it turned out that I spent most of the time stabbing myself with the needle instead of the cloth, so she said maybe I should knit instead. It's safer. As long as you don't put it in your pocket and run with it. I am never doing that again."
Martin leaned in. "And I'm the one you think needs to man up?"
Laughing, Artie watched as AJ unwrapped the knitting, and started fixing it.
"Ok, guys, confession. After what AJ just said, there's no way you can laugh at me about this. That's not my mom's knitting...it's mine. I'm trying to make Quinn a scarf for Christmas. Apparently I fail at knitting."
AJ grinned. "I'll say you fail...you're going backwards. And what is this? It should be wrapped in a ball...did you wrap this around a DVD case?"
Artie nodded, blushing slightly. "I didn't know what to do with it!" He watched as AJ's fingers moved at what appeared to be lightning speed compared to how slowly it went when he did it, and in no time, the scarf had grown several inches.
"Ok, stop! I want to make it for her! Otherwise, I'll have to include a card that says 'Merry Christmas, Quinn...AJ knit you this scarf while Martin and I supervised.' Can you show me?"
Beth, who had started setting the table in the dining room for dinner, couldn't help but overhear their conversation. Every time she saw Artie with his friends, particularly Martin and AJ, and Quinn, of course, she felt glad that he had people to do things with. The two boys seemed very nice, and she was glad that they had started spending time together.
"Am I doing this right?" he asked, holding up his hands for AJ to see. After a bit of instruction and demonstration from AJ, Artie had started knitting it himself, painstakingly slowly, but at least he was doing it on his own.
AJ nodded. "I think you've got the hang of it! The rest of it will just fly together for you now, but if you need help, you know where I am, dude."
"Boys, dinner's ready!" they heard Beth call from the other room.
"I'll be right back, I just want to put this away before Linds sees it," Artie said, turning to leave the kitchen. "She'll want to know what it's for, and I don't want to ruin the surprise for Quinn! AJ, you're the best, yo! Oh, and you too, Martin. Obviously."
"Come to me for all your knitting needs," AJ said, saluting him.
Martin grinned. "Yeah, but don't come to him for anything else, because he's useless."
AJ swatted him with a wooden spoon he found lying on the table, as they stood up and prepared to go into the dining room.
And, back to Quinn's...
Quinn sat in front of her computer, staring at the screen. She had searched several different terms, before clicking on the profile of someone who called himself "Captain Knitting." Captain Knitting had the camera set up so his face could not be seen, and the quality of the video was quite good, considering the fact that it was a run of the mill "how to" YouTube video. She watched a couple of his videos, and decided that they were the best she had seen. He even had one about making hats!
As she watched the video, copying what Captain Knitting's every move, she realized that his voice sounded eerily familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. She'd have to ask Artie about it after Christmas, when she could share the fact that she'd been knitting. Maybe together they could figure out who it was.
A/N: Not linked to any specific chapters of "All My Dreams" and "The Smile on Your Face," but linked to the story that's taking place there, with Quinn and Artie knitting each other Christmas presents in secret. I just wanted to explore this whole knitting thing a bit more, and thought this might be an interesting avenue to take.